Trish Knits.com

Category: Knitting

  • Not Yet!

    Next week is my birthday. It’s not one which some would call a, “major birthday,” but for some reason I’ve been having a hard time with the very idea of it. I guess, technically, one could be no more squarely in the middle of middle age as I am, officially, right now. I think I fear getting old. I don’t think the prospects of aging gracefully are looking too good for me right now. But, this depressing little digression is not the point of today’s post.

    For the longest time I’ve always had trouble saying what I want for my birthday. Sure, I usually come up with something, but it is a question I dread from my loved ones each year. This year was no different, but then last week it hit me. One of my favorite things that I own is my digital camera, which, literally, gets nearly daily use. My camera is a really nice one, but now it is a few years old. And, the technology has improved a lot in the last few years. So, even though it feels frivolous, when my husband asked me this year what I wanted for my birthday, I told him that I’d like to upgrade my camera.

    He readily agreed, and three days later, voila! Amazon delivered.

    Canon SX20-IS
    Canon SX20-IS

    It’s the Canon PowerShot SX20IS Digital Camerawhich is an upgrade of my older camera. It has twice as many megapixels, can use a larger SD card, is even more light sensitive, has a longer zoom, has a hot shoe, and can shoot HD movies. Those are just a few of the new or improved features. I’ve liked this camera because even though it is a digital camera that can be used as a point and shoot, it does so much more, and allows me to make all kinds of adjustments for different photo effects. I especially loved that my camera was really light sensitive, meaning that I can take indoor photographs without having to use the flash very often. This is important for photographing yarn, as regular readers of this blog will know that I do quite regularly. I really don’t like using the flash because I love the effects of natural light and the prettier colors and skin tones that I can achieve.

    So the camera arrived yesterday, and even though it wasn’t my birthday for nearly a week, I had to open the box. My husband didn’t really expect that I would wait! He knows me too well. Much of the camera feels familiar, though it is slightly larger and considerably heavier. It has many of the same functions and works a lot the same way as my older camera, given that they are close relatives, and yet, I found myself getting frustrated with the minor changes and having to slow down on the learning curve. But, here it is only a day later, and I’m already getting the hang of it. I think I’m going to love this camera as much as I loved its predecessor. Here’s one of the first pictures I took with it:

    cherries
    cherries

    I keep thinking of the great Erma Bombeck, who wrote one of my favorite books of all time, If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits?. The cover of that book, when I had it as a kid, had cherries in the background.

    So then, to add to the birthday joy, my mother-in-law called this afternoon and asked if she and the F-I-L could come by tonight to celebrate my birthday, since they’re getting ready to go out of town. We had just been planning to have pizza and an easy night anyway, so I invited them to join us. She brought cake! It was my favorite cake from the local Amish market. And then they presented me with this:


    rainbow-y and pink yarn
    rainbow-y and pink yarn

    Yarn! Can you believe it? They went on a European holiday this spring, and while visiting in the Netherlands, they came across a lady selling yarn in a market. My mother-in-law said she saw the woman making a scarf with this very yarn and she thought it was neat and that I’d like it. She took a picture of that scarf in progress to show me. it sort of knits up in solid pink and rainbow multi stripes. I think I will enjoy knitting this!

    Of course, Tegan had to check out the yarn for herself:

    Kitty wants the yarn
    Kitty wants the yarn

    Finally, here is the first movie from my new camera. It’s nothing special, except that last week when I was at the Amish Farmer’s Market I fell in love with these really large wind chimes. They sound like bells, and are perfectly tuned to each other so that they actually make music when they move. They’re stunning.

    That, or I’m easy to please.

  • FO Report: Jen’s Hello Kitty Scarf

    Project Name:Jen’s Hello Kitty Scarf
    Yarn Used: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Mediumweight
    Needle Size: 7
    Date Started: May 11, 2009
    Date Completed: June 24, 2010

    Jen's Hello Kitty Scarf
    Jen’s Hello Kitty Scarf
    Notes: Well, I am late in reporting on this, but you’ll be happy to know that I got this project done in time for my visit with my friend Jen last week. I think she liked it! It’s a simple scarf made with Barbara Walker’s “Twin Rib” stitch. I don’t know why, but this stitch has always called to me. I think I am done with it for a while now, though! All those K1, P1 rows were a killer! Remind me, please, that if I ever pick up a sweater pattern with large sections of seed stitch, that I should put the pattern down quickly, and just forget I ever saw it? Thank you.



    Here’s a closeup of the Twin Rib stitch:

    Closeup of Twin Rib stitch
    Closeup of Twin Rib stitch

    So naturally, with the scarf project behind me, I felt a little twinge of geez, what do I knit now? Of course, there is my February Lady Sweater, but it’s been so hot in these parts lately that I can’t fathom knitting on it just now. I needed something small, in lighter weight yarn. I tried, oh I tried, to get excited about knitting a sock. It was a sport weight slipper sock, designed for people like me who get bored quickly. But alas, it only lasted a half a toe, and about half a day, before I yanked it out of my bag.

    Still looking in my sock yarn box for inspiration, I pulled out some Sock! Merino by Lisa Souza, in the colorway, “Wild Things” (my favorite). I bought some worsted weight in the same colorway last year, saving it for a future sweater. But the sock weight yarn has been in my stash since 2007. I have two hanks, and it has always been destined to be a shawl. Hard to know what to do with it though, as I am not a lace knitter (yet) and the lace projects that attracted me most require more yardage than I have.

    So what did I do?

    Clapotis beginnings
    Clapotis beginnings

    I have cast on a Clapotis, a.k.a., the Great Common Denominator of knitting. There are currently 15,507 projects for this pattern listed on Ravelry, none of which are my previous three attempts at this pattern. I have tried this before, and –don’t shoot me!– I have gotten BORED with the pattern before I could finish it each time. So why is it different this time? The truth is that I don’t know, but I am hoping that the yarn itself is highly motivating this time. I really, really have always wanted to have a wrap to wear from this yarn. I should have a wrap in every color by now, for all sorts of options in the wardrobe, but I have not a one, except for the store-bought kind.

    And so, as of two days ago, I am on a quest to change this. My hope is that the yarn is light enough that the knitting will not be too hot for this weather, that I will not drive myself insane with boredom, and that imagining myself wrapped in this amazing yarn come fall will allow me to be a success.

    Next time, I have a more personal story to share. I hope you’ll cheer me on. Til then,

    Happy knitting!

  • Home is Where the Heart is

    Hands making heart shape
    Hands making heart shape
    Ok, so I know that it’s rare to find me here, blogging. Why am I in a blogging slump, and why have I been staying away? I think I’ve been extra stressed lately, and I haven’t just wanted to use the blog as a dumping ground for all that’s bugging me. This is, after all, a knitting blog, and that means it’s supposed to be light-hearted and fun, right? Well forgive me if I haven’t been feeling so light-of-heart lately and I’d really just rather go hide under a rock and mope.

    I’ve had some strife in my extended family lately that has been getting me down, which has forced me to examine just what and who is “family,” and whether or not just because someone has the label of family it means that they hold some special power over me that defines my place in the world. I’m slowly coming around to the realization that what makes a family is not always just the people to whom you’re connected by blood or marriage or some other circumstance that causes your life experiences to be intertwined. A family can happen anywhere, in any way, as long as there are people somewhere who love you. I have a family of my own, and in it are people who love me. And there are others who are not family, who I know love me just as much. I have been blessed in this life with good friends to whom I am bonded as a sister to brother, or sister to sister, and for those people I am most grateful.

    So my cup runneth over. And yet, when just a few have made me sad, or made me feel less a member of their clan than I had hoped I was, somehow, it still managed to rock my world. I’ve been struggling over these past few weeks to not discount all that I do have, surrounding and supporting me, and not letting those who would discount me, intentionally or unintentionally, define who I am. It’s funny how those who should be the most insignificant wind up having the biggest impact, like the proverbial sore thumb. But I will get past it. I am getting better, even if it is just a little bit every day.

    Trish and Karen sneak a few stitches at lunch
    Trish and Karen sneak a few stitches at lunch
    In the meantime, I am knitting. It’s just a scarf for now, but it is all that I can manage. I’m nearing the end of my knitting on my friend Jennifer’s scarf. In just a day or two I am going to add really long fringe on it and call it done. For the life of me I don’t know why I am attracted to so many scarves–as projects they are positively endless and I never can keep myself from tiring of them long before they are finished. But, I am stealing every possible moment to knit this before I see my friend Jennifer next week. Here I am, knitting on my lunch hour with my friend Karen from work. Karen, who I met in the bathroom on the fifth floor of my office, of all places, because we both commented on the lovely cables in another woman’s hat. They were the sort of comments that only a knitter would make, so we became instantly bonded as we washed our hands in the automatic sinks. We try to get together every couple of weeks or so, to marvel at each other’s projects and share knitting gossip. but mostly it’s so we can throw down a couple of rows during lunch before having to face a stressful afternoon in the cube farm. It helps, it really does. And I’m so lucky to have made a new friend.


    Book Review: Knitting for Baby

    I recently purchased the book, Knitting for Baby: 30 Heirloom Projects with Complete How-to-Knit Instructions by Kristin Nicholas and Melanie Falick. I was a little nervous about buying a book with learn-to-knit instructions already in it, because, well, I already know how to knit. And, in general, I hate those knitting books that have overly-simplified instructions followed by a bunch of impossible projects, as if someone who’s just learning to knit is going to turn out designer sweaters at the get-go. But for once, this book makes absolute sense, and I applaud the authors’ decision to make it a learn-to-knit book. Lots of people learn to knit for the first time with the impending arrival of a baby, so isn’t it great to have a book for beginners that is also filled with adorable little things to knit?

    Kristin Nicholas and Melanie Fallick are just about two of my most favorite designers, and this book did not disappoint me. I love just about every project in this book. I love how it starts out with the basics, and gives you a few projects to work on, then adds a skill, and a few more projects featuring that skill, and so on. Even the most basic designs at the beginning of the book are as cute as can be, though… so even if you’re a more seasoned knitter this book is still worth a look. You’ll find everything from practical booties and hats, to beautiful sweaters, and whimsical little toys. There’s always a new baby coming in my family, as many cousins and nieces as there are, so I am quite sure that this book will get lots of use around here!

  • And… I’m Back.

    Sort of. Yeah, well. I don’t have an excuse for having been away for so long. Except that I’ve been in a funk. A stinky, gray, ugly funk. I’m trying to force myself out of it, but it hasn’t been easy. I miss blogging. I miss being excited about my knitting.

    This weekend I asked my daughter to help me organize and put away all of my yarns. And we did it! It had gotten overwhelming in my den, with all of my new yarns from the last 6 months or so all over the place, and not put away in containers. This weekend we rectified that situation. My husband went out and got me two new bins, and we reorganized and re-categorized everything. I even found some stuff to give away, but I’m going to give the ladies in my knitting club a first whack at it. There’s not much in the discard bin, but it’s a start. I figure by now that at least some of the yarn that’s been in my stash since I first started knitting deserved some serious thought. If I haven’t touched it in 5 years, am I going to? Doubt it.

    Little Bubbles Baby Set, cardigan yoke started
    Little Bubbles Baby Set, cardigan yoke started
    So what have I been knitting? For starters, this little cutie. It’s the Little Bubbles Baby Set, by Nina Isaacson, of Knit Picks. I really like that this little sweater is so adorable and is keeping my interest by teaching me several new techniques. One of the things that was new to me was the “Little Bubbles” stitch that makes the cute design on the yoke of the sweater. I was a little confused by the instructions, but thank goodness for Ravelry, because the designer was just a quick message away. Not only did she explain to me the proper technique for doing the stitch (versus the way I had interpreted it in my mind), but she pointed me to a YouTube video that demonstrated the technique.

    After watching the video and receiving Nina’s explanation, it all made perfect sense and off I went! I have actually completed more of the yoke than this picture shows, but hopefully I’ll have an updated photo soon.

    I do find the cotton yarn to be a little fiddly to work with, so I’m saving this for an at home project, while my February Lady Sweater is still coming with me on my daily commute and to knit group and such. Sounds backwards, huh, having the big project along for the ride, and the teeny baby one for at home? Yeah, maybe, but I find it harder to work smaller stitches on smaller needles. Maybe that’s why I have yet to fall in love with socks.

    But alas… about a year ago I started a pink scarf for my good friend Jennifer, whose favorite color is pink, and I never finished it. Jen used to live in my same town near me and our “birthday buddy” daughters went to the same school. But she lives in Michigan now, and I wanted to finish the scarf in time for her visit last year. Sadly, here it is, more than a year later, and she’s about to come for another visit. This time, I MUST finish the scarf and give it to her while she’s here. So, I’ll be taking a short break from BOTH sweaters for some marathon scarf knitting.

    Speaking of which, I’d better get busy. Sorry I was away so long. I’ll try not to let it happen again. I’m still looking for my lost mojo, but hopefully I’ll find it soon. In the meantime, I hope you’ll hang in there with me. I’d love to hear from you all!

    Ciao for now.

  • Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival 2010: A Year to Remember

    Last weekend was the first weekend in May. If you’re a fiber fanatic, and anywhere within driving distance of the state of Maryland, you know what that means. It was the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Which, for fiber lovers like me, is almost as good as Christmas.

    (If I said it was better than Christmas, my family would be even more convinced that I am crazy, so let’s just keep that our little secret, ok?)

    So, last Saturday I left the house at about 10 a.m. with my good friend Steve. This trip has become something of an annual event for us. Steve is my best friend from college; we were next-door neighbors at the campus apartment complex and met during a fire drill some 24 years ago. It was a good day. The weather was unseasonably hot, but we considered that a good thing, since the year before I had shorted the electronics of my wheelchair during the previous year’s trip. So, while the heat was a big topic among festival goers, the whole time I kept telling myself that rain would have been much, much worse.

    The fairgrounds are about 40 minutes or so from my house, but this year, at about three miles out, we were stopped dead in our tracks. The traffic was truly horrible. But, I was with a good friend and we had Glee going on the iPod, so again, it could have been much worse. Still, it was two and a half hours before we found ourselves walking into the festival gate.

    I had been e-mailing my friend Jen all the way, as I knew she had been planning to arrive at the festival much earlier than I was. She reported that she was making a trip to her car just as we were getting onto the grounds, and so we happened to bump into her near the gate.

    Trish and Jen at the gate
    Trish and Jen at the gate

    At the same spot I ran into my friend Karen from work. all before we ever made it inside the grounds! Since we’d been so long in the car, Steve and I arrived at the festival feeling ready for lunch, so we set off looking for food right away.

    We found a lamb vendor and someone selling lime fizzes right next to each other. The lines were long, so Steve got in one and I got in the other. The lamb vendor was one I don’t remember seeing before.

    Waiting in line for the lamb
    Waiting in line for the lamb

    I ended up with a beautiful kabob for lunch, and washed it down with a lime fizz, both of which I consider to be a true festival tradition.

    Lamb Kabob
    Lamb Kabob
    Lime fizz
    Lime fizz

    Lots of people tell me that they can’t bring themselves to eat lamb at the sheep and wool festival, with all the adorable lambs so close by. I don’t mind eating meat, so long as I don’t have to talk to it first, and the lamb is something that just makes the whole experience unique. I love the aroma of lamb as it is cooking. My kabob was like a whole meal on a stick, including lamb sausage, peppers, onion, tomatoes, mushrooms, and a baby potato. And the lime fizz was the perfect cooler for such a hot day.

    One of the things I like best about the festival is the live music that is played in various locations throughout the grounds. When entering the Main Building, where a large number of vendors are located, I heard this:

    Very soon I found lots of things to get excited about. One of the things that caught my eye fairly early on was an electronic spinning wheel device that looked so easy, that maybe even I could learn to operate it. I don’t spin, because I can’t treadle with my feet, and drop spindles and I don’t seem to get along, no matter how hard I try. (Emphasis on the “dropping” part of drop spindles, if you know what I mean.)

    Turns out that this device has a foot pedal like that which you’d find on a sewing machine, but you can set it to tap once for on, and tap again for off. So, the kind people at the booth set up one of the machines so that it could be within my reach, and off I went!

    Trish spinning with the Hansen e-Spinner
    Trish spinning with the Hansen e-Spinner

    This is the HansenCrafts miniSpinner, equipped with a Woolee Winder. I fear that I am going to have to get one of these things. I can do it! My first few tries yielded a couple inches of slubby, twisty yarn, but hey, since I’ve never really spun before I still need to get a feel for drafting and holding the yarn. Oh, no! I’m starting to use spinners’ words! I definitely don’t need another thing to be obsessed about, but I feel the bug biting. I figure if stuff a 20 in my sock drawer once a week, it won’t be that long til I’ve saved up, right?

    Of course, there are animals everywhere.

    Baby alpaca
    Baby alpaca
    Sheepie gets the full beauty treatment
    Sheepie gets the full beauty treatment
    Sheepie gets the final touches on the hairdo
    Sheepie gets the final touches on the hairdo

    And there are lovely examples of what one can make with their wools.

    Collection of beautiful alpaca sweaters
    Collection of beautiful alpaca sweaters

    Of course, I did some shopping while at the festival. More about what I bought will be coming in a future post. But what matters to me most, I think, about this festival is the atmosphere. I know there are other fiber festivals around the country. I’ve never been to any of them, but I feel like I’ve got the best there is, right in my own backyard. It’s great for people who want to shop, a wonderful place to see and learn about fiber-producing animals, and a wonderful tradition that I look forward to every year. It’s a great gathering place for fiber friends, and I look forward to seeing people that I know there, year after year. I’m already looking forward to next year. There’s so much to do there, I keep telling myself, that I don’t really need to buy yarn.

    Yeah, right. Stay tuned for that part of the story.

  • Blog Week Day 7: Yarn Love

    Wow… today is the last day of Blog Week! I am sad to see it end, but, at the same time, I confess that I am a bit relieved as well. I never have been a daily blogger, and I have no intention of maintaining this week’s hectic pace. In fact, most of the time I don’t have nearly enough to say, so it has been very helpful to have pre-defined topics. If Blog week ever happens again, so long as it’s not next week? I’m definitely in.

    I think today’s topic, “A Good Yarn,” which is kinda sorta supposed to be about a favorite yarn, is one of the hardest so far to write. How do I choose a favorite? Isn’t that like trying to choose a favorite child, or a favorite flavor of ice cream?

    The truth is, I never met a yarn I didn’t like. I love them all, for different reasons. I have knit with everything from the cheapest dishcloth cotton to the yummiest of cashmere. I admit that I have not tried quiviut yarn yet, because at roughly $90 an ounce, I can’t afford to fall in love with it! I even must confess that–don’t tell anyone, please–I don’t hate acrylic yarn. In fact, before I became a knitter, I don’t think it occurred to me that I would ever want to knit with anything other than acrylic, mostly because of the ease of care.

    But, I have changed my ways. I have so many types of yarn in my stash now, that acrylic is probably the least among them. So, when I looked around to determine a favorite yarn, if I could possibly have such a thing, it was a good, basic wool.

    Lots of Cascade 220 in various shades
    Lots of Cascade 220 in various shades
    One such example is Cascade 220. I call it my Workhorse Yarn, because there’s almost nothing that can’t be made with it. I love it for hats, because the wool is so warm. And I love it that it comes in so many wonderful colors. It’s like having the whole Crayola Big Box. Didn’t you feel special when you knew that you had all the colors? That’s kinda how I feel about Cascade. I have collected the colors over time and I love having so many to choose from, no matter what whim hits me when I want to knit something. I especially love hitting the once-a-year Webs sale, when this yarn becomes especially affordable. (Pssst… in case you didn’t know, that sale is on… NOW!)

    There are other yarns that also are good, sturdy wools I love. Most notably, Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, which is a fabulous wool at a fabulous price, and Brown Sheep Lambs Pride, which contains a little bit of mohair. This is my favorite yarn for making my felted hats, as the mohair gives a slight fuzzy halo to the hats. I think the mohair adds to the elegance of the felted items.

    This weekend was the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, which is my favorite event of the year. The weather was about as hot as I ever remember for this early in May, but I was really thankful that it wasn’t raining. I saw lots of friends, enjoyed great food, heard some fabulous traditional music, and oh, yes, some yarn followed me home. I’m still working on my photos from the event but I hope you’ll be hearing more about that in the next day or so. Until then, I bid you goodnight.